Before Time, there was only Carcosa, a place inhabited by the trees. In Carcosa, time did not spin out into a line, but rather stood in a single moment, growing straight up like the trunk of a great tree. As the ever-present singular moment of the world grew, it put more and more weight on, time stacking atop itself until the present was a heavy thing. As the present grew heavier, things began to grow slower and slower, held down by the weight of timeless being.
One of the trees– Maple– grew sick. It could not grow anymore, pinned down into itself by the stillness. Eventually, it lost its voice, too, suffocating endlessly. But in Carcosa, there is no death. Maple would suffer eternally, breathless and dying with no relief, forever.
Until the other trees noticed. Together, they formed a council, and freed Maple from their curse the only way they could– by letting time begin. The first night arrived. The days, slowly, began to grow cold. And before the trees realized what they had done, all of their lives were under threat, the bounty of their beauty no longer tenable in the coming winter.
Soon enough, they realized they must give in to the change around them, and they started to make an unthinkable choice– redefine themselves, not as the beautiful and powerful gods that they knew themselves to be, but as beings beholden to change. They let their leaves, the core of their identity, crumple and fall, leaving the world emptied out, and the ground yellow and brown and slowly rotting as the days grew short and the nights long.
So total was the dissolution of their being that the change took on a personality of its own. Out of the death of Carcosa, a new glory rose: The trees call it THE KING IN YELLOW.
That was a long time ago. Time, now, is as natural to us as Carcosa was to them. But there are moments in history where we come close to the tragedy of Carcosan stillness again, moments where without us realising, we, too, must shed what we know and embrace coming change. In moments like this, the King steps through time and returns to the world, bringing with him the decay of all we know.
And the King remembers. He remembers the players of the game in Old Carcosa, and to arrive again, the story must be told once more. This time, with You at the center. You will decay, so that he may return.
Give the Gift of Decay. Make a story to live in. Walk the path of Carcosa.
The King in Yellow is a multi-week, long term collaborative experience for groups of any size, though it should be an even number. In this game, a group of creators (the Stewards) will design a three-week experiential story for a same–numbered group of audience members (the Participants). This design process starts well before the three-week period, and will continue through to the very end, involving the Participants all the way through. This story is a gift for the Participants. No two games will be the same! Much of the Stewards’ creation is specific to your participants– there is no participant rulebook. Anything they need to do, they will learn immersively as they move through the story. Crucially, this is because they will enter the story as themselves! They will have character histories and ways to influence the story, but none that necessitate being anyone other than themselves. As a Steward, your job is to make this story for them.
0 Comments